SOUTH AFRICA’S ROLE IN THE FIRST MOON LANDING

By Amal Khatri and Shaun Read

20 July 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon and humankind’s first
footsteps on a celestial body other than Earth. The scale of this achievement should not be
underestimated, nor should South Africa’s role in this grand endeavour be forgotten.

In 1961 when President Kennedy announced the goal of placing a man on the moon before the end
of the decade, American astronauts had only spent a total of 15 minutes in low earth orbit using
converted missile rockets. The technology necessary to get to the Moon, and land on it, existed only
on paper, if at all.

Like President Ramaphosa’s ideal of a “smart city”, many in the USA did not share Kennedy’s dream.
Almost immediately the Apollo programme was faced with funding resistance from the US Congress,
the escalating Vietnam War and societal changes at home that saw the Apollo programme as a
waste of money. But for the cold war space race with the USSR and the assassination of Kennedy
(which drove sentiment), the Apollo programme may never have survived the decade.

The first manned Apollo flight was only ready for launch in 1967. A fire on the launch pad during a
launch rehearsal for Apollo 1 and the resultant death of three astronauts, further delayed the Apollo
programme. Eventually, the first manned Apollo flight (Apollo 7) launched in October 1968, less
than 12 months before the intended lunar landing. The next flight, Apollo 8, was the first mission to
reach and orbit the Moon, doing so on Christmas Day 1968. The now famous “Earthrise”
photograph, taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts, brought home to many the fragility of Earth and is
credited with sparking the environmentalist movement.

Barely 6 months later Apollo 11 cleared the launch pad at Cape Canaveral on its trajectory to the
Moon. That trajectory took Apollo 11, like other NASA launches, past the southern tip of Africa. For
this reason, in 1960, NASA had established a tracking station, north of Johannesburg at
Hartebeeshoek, which was operated under NASA’s direct control. This tracking station was one of
14 established by NASA throughout the world to relay communications and telemetry to NASA
control centres in the USA from its space craft. Even before the Moon landings, the Hartebeeshoek
tracking station played an important role in NASA’s space programmes. The first pictures of the
Mars surface, taken by Mariner 4 in 1965, were capture and relayed by the Hartebeeshoek facility.
Similarly, many of the Moon survey spacecraft, which preceded the Apollo missions, beamed their
photos back to earth via South Africa. At least part of the Apollo 11 flight to the Moon would have
been tracked using the Hartebeeshoek tracking station.

Although the technology utlised in the Moon landing was cutting edge for its day, the computing
power of the space craft that propelled human beings to the Moon, was less than that of today’s
average pocket calculator. Even more low-tech was the only South African invention to make it to
the Moon, Pratley Putty. Used to attach certain components of the Eagle landing craft, astronauts
carried a supply of the sticky substance with them to effect repairs on the Moon, if required.

Two years after the last of the Apollo missions in 1972, NASA withdrew from the Hartebeeshoek
facility due to political pressure. The facility reverted to the CSIR and later to the South African
National Space Agency (SANSA), which was established in 2010. Throughout this time, South Africa
has continued to play a significant role in international space programmes and remains only the
country in Africa with the capability to design and build and satellite systems.put a satellite in space.
Like the Apollo programme, SANSA faces competing interests for its space programme funding.
Contrary to popular belief, SANSA’s space programmes are not about launching space probes into
deep space and are instead focused on challenges faced back home, such as climate change, water
resources and human settlement sciences which largely addresses our socio-economic challengers.
Space programmes are not cheap and the costs will always be weighed against shorter term goals
such as housing and service delivery. However, if South Africa is to enter into and compete in the 4th
Industrial revolution, it will require a fully funded mandate to achieve its long term goals in utilizing
space for the benefit of mankind. In order to retain the current skills and develop new capability
South Africa will need to invest in 4IR where space based systems will play a critical role in
supporting governments initiatives. cannot do so by allowing its space programme to fail due to a
lack of funding and thereby forcing the required skills to seek employment elsewhere in the world.

It took just 66 years for humankind to progress from the first powered flight in 1903 of 120 meters
to landing a human being on the Moon some 300 000 km into space. 50 years on no human has set
foot on any other celestial body. When eventually he or she does so, will South Africa possess any
ability to participate in this next great endeavour?

Amal Khatri is the Executive Director: Space Engineering of the South African National Space Agency.
Shaun Read is the Founder of Read Advisory Services and a space enthusiast. They write in their
personal capacities